Challenges with Implementation
As with any change in practice, staff can be skeptical,
reluctant, or fearful of change. We received positive responses
after staff received the in-service education on
benefits of STS and understood the need for improvement;
however, we were unable to provide the in-service
education to all of the staff. Another challenge was staff
assignments. At our facility nursery nurses often have
mixed assignments (both well and sick infants), so if a
nurse is caring for a sick infant and is assigned to admit
a healthy infant after cesarean, the nurse may not be able
to leave the sick infant even for 15 minutes to support
STS in the OR. As a result, the charge nurse now stays
in the OR to support STS instead of the nursery admit
nurse. Charge nurses and nurse managers can play a strategic
role in working out appropriate staffing models.